Rescued By The Freaky Haired One
by A Tissy Collaboration
Summary: What if you tried to make the world a better place, a place without violence and conflict? What if it all went wrong? What if Axel was the only one with the power to save us all?" "...We're all doomed! Shut up Riku!" Yaoi, rated for swearing.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

**Tasha: **Yeah, this is mine and Issy's first co-written fic. She's a lazy bum and couldn't be bothered to write anything! :3 Not really! (I love you, Issy, don't hurt me!) Um, this will probably become an epic fic. We'll try and update regularly, as in, once a week. Let's see if we can stick to our promise! Hope everyone has a merry Christmas! On another note, this story will be regaled through many different points of views. Enjoy!

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**Axel POV**

If Roxas was here, I know what he'd say.

It's all Axel's fault.

Yeah right. As if such a handsome stud like me could cause all this mess. But, no matter. I'll be the one paying for it anyways. I'm kinda freaked that I'll end up like Demyx. No memories. No emotions.

Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?

Thought so. I'd better start from the beginning.

The beginning, in my opinion, would have to be when Larxene joined our rag-tag group. The girl, in my humble opinion, is bat-shit crazy. This kinda explains why she's such good friends with Xigbar. But I digress.

It happened when Reno, my idiotic older brother, and I were on a recon mission to scope out Hollow Bastion's new electricity plant. Something was fishy there, and Zexion had insisted that we check it out.

So there we were, innocently minding our own business as we broke into the plant in the middle of the night, when we heard someone cackle. And lemme tell you, that cackle is enough to make your balls shrivel up and _die_. Reno cussed and whipped around, his eyes narrowing at the girl. Or what we assumed was a girl. You can never really tell, with everyone wearing personants nowadays.

Wait a sec. You don't know what personants are? Have you been living under a rock for the past, like, I dunno, HUNDRED YEARS?!

Sorry, my temper's getting the better of me. In such a small, dank space, can you blame me for getting a little antsy? Fine, I'll explain personants to you.

About one hundred and fifty years ago, things had gotten really bad, on a world wide scale. Everyone was nuking each other and loads of innocent people were dying. I mean, the living situation for most people was crap. Different races of people were being blamed. If you were a poor woman, you were not given any education and once you got too old to be of any use, you were likely to be murdered by your own family. And so, one rich powerful man, some guy called Ansem the Wise, enlisted the help of some famous scientist dude to help him try and stop the warfare and general hate. It took them twenty years, but they finally perfected the Personant. The earth's only hope for world peace.

In the present time, nearly _everyone_ wears a personant. With the exception of a select few. Like myself. Those who refuse to wear personants are captured and punished by the authorities. Which is, like, a real bummer. A personant is a mechanical, technologically advanced mask. When you put it on, it covers your face, so that there is no discrimination between sexes, races or ages, among other things. Your wear clothing that covers your entire body and your voice is given a robotic inflection. When you're born, the school you will go to and your job are decided for you. There is no currency, nor is there world trade. Since the development of the personant, there have been many changes to the way of living. Everyone on the entire _earth_ is ruled by a single government and humans have become a self-sustaining race. You must be thinking why the hell would I want to upset such a great set up? Well, my friend, that is because, if you bother to look beneath the surface of our perfect society, you'll see that things are a little more than messed up. Why haven't people noticed this? Because they've been _conditioned_. From birth until death, the majority of the human race is brain-washed into thinking that everything is just peachy. From repetitive adverts to subliminal messages, the government makes sure to keep a tight hold on their public. These things stop the civilians from causing uprisings and rebellions. Which is, like, totally not cool.

Okay, so now that you're up to date with what personants are, can I get on with my story?

Thank you.

So, this creepy girl was laughing at us as we tried to break into an important building. If she had been a normal citizen, she would have reported us straight away while screaming about how we were perverts for showing out faces. So, when, instead, she just stood there laughing, we realized that she wasn't normal.

"Jeez," she chuckled, "What are you guys _doing_? And without personants, too. Are you drunk or something? Or are you just plain stupid?"

"We, uh, work at the plant but it's locked and we forgot our personants inside…" I answered, hoping she would just shoo.

"Yeah, right. Okay, I believe you. Now, answer me this. Why the hell are you trying to break into the _pet food store_?"

I hit Reno over the head. "Idiot," I hissed, "I can't _believe_ that you messed up the location. _Again_."

My brother just grinned sheepishly. As well he should. That was the _third _time he'd messed up this week. Idiot…

The blonde girl, who you may have realized by now, is Larxene, sighed and stood with her hands on her hips.

"I'm bored and you guys seem dangerous enough. Need some help?"

I was about to refuse when she pulled off her personant, revealing her slicked back blonde hair, bluish green eyes and the widest and cruelest smirk that I ever did see. The fact that she was showing her face gave me pause for thought. She was certainly brave…

Tentatively, I accepted the borderline mentally unstable girl's help.

All in all, it turned out to be a good decision.

She got us to the right place. We got it and we got out. And then she decided that she wanted to come back to AVALANCHE with us. AVALANCHE being the hella cool name of our renegade group. And we accepted because, honestly, we need all the help we can get. When you're trying to overthrow a government and change the living situation for basically everyone on earth, you realize that beggars can't be choosers.

I never did find out where she was from.

When we arrived back at base, Yuffie came out to greet us. Not something you need in the early hours of the morning, after staging a break in and in the heat of the desert. So, no, I wasn't pleased to see her.

"Hey guys, what took ya so long?" she questioned, having not yet spotted our new companion.

Soon enough, however, she managed to spot the petite blonde amidst her excitement.

"So, was the plant- OH MY FREAKING GOD! LEON, GET OUT HERE, LOOK WHAT AXEL BROUGHT BACK ESPECIALLY FOR MEEEEEEE!" the girl screeched, clasping her hands to her chest delightedly as she called for her best friend, and resident tough guy, Leon.

The brunet came stumbling out, scowling as the heat soaked unwelcomingly into his leather outfit. Silly Leon. Only Yuffie could be _that_ energetic all the time.

He squinted in the light at Larxene before asking, "Axel, who the fuck is this?"

"Aw," I teased, throwing my arm over her shoulder "That's no way to treat the newest member of our -OW!- family!" Larxene then continued to bite at my hand until I dropped it.

Leon smirked silently, crossing his arms in a languid manner. "Right… So, where did you find this one?" he asked.

"Actually," Reno interjected as he walked slowly towards the entrance of the little place we called home, "The bitch found us."

The blonde girl smiled at this. Twisted, twisted girl.

"Yeah," I continued, "She didn't even pack a bag, just up and decided to come back with us."

"Oooooooh…" Yuffie trailed off in child-like glee. However, she didn't stay silent for long. "Ohmigosh! I just _have_ to introduce you to the others this instant!" She said this while jumping up and down in a deranged manner, clapping those dangerous hands together. After this she hopped over to Leon, tugging at his long shaggy bangs and pinching his cheeks until his stoic face turned red. He slowly detached himself from his friend, muttering something about Yuffie and being buried alive and how no one would ever find him.

A determined Yuffie is never denied. Unless, of course, you _want_ to lose a limb.

The black haired girl dragged her new friend into the small, abandoned building we use as our base. You may be wondering why we were all up in the middle of night.

That is because we don't get out much in the daytime. If you were a fugitive, would you?

And there, Larxene was greeted by her would-be family. I'd better describe them to you, eh?

Zexion sat with Vincent at the small table that dominated the corner kitchenette. They were arguing over one of the few primitive books we owned. You know the ones I mean. The ones still bound by a spine and printed on paper. As compared to the e-books everybody else has now. My best friend, and Zexion's boyfriend, Demyx, sat, playing his sitar softly while chatting with Xigbar, who was leaning on the arm of our ratty old sofa. Leon followed us inside, ducking out of the way as Zack attacked my brother, his best friend. Why he's friends with such an idiot, I'll never know.

Larxene walked boldly to the centre of the room, took a moment, before pointing at Xigbar.

"What's with the eye-patch?" she asked.

"Aww, dude, not cool," replied the older man, running a hand through his grey streaked black hair, which was tied in a loose ponytail at the nape of his neck. He stood up and sauntered over to the girl, amusement glittering in his eyes.

I'm so descriptive, aren't I?

I fell onto the couch, next to the sandy haired sitarist and promptly rested my head on his shoulder.

"Demyx, why didn't you say 'hello' to me?"

"I was talking to Xigbar."

"You know what? You make a really bad wife."

"I'm not your wife!" He exclaimed, mock insulted. "When I get married to Zexy, I'm gonna have his babies," he stated proudly.

"But, darling! What about us? What about everything we've been through together!? I pronounced my undying love to you in that burning building that one time, remember?"

"Ax, we were playing rock, paper, scissors and you said, and I quote, 'Dem, I think I kinda like you. I mean, you're alright looking and I'm bored.' End quote."

"Huh. I don't remember that."

"You were drunk."

"Ooooh…"

We sat in a comfortable silence before I mentioned that, "That girl's got a mean bite."

"…Cool."

"Don't worry Dem. She doesn't turn me on like you do," I replied suavely, smirking flirtatiously.

I am so smooth.

Before Zexion joined us and before I met Roxas, Demyx and I had had a 'thing'. But we're mature people now. That didn't stop me from hitting on him, however. Damn, I miss that boy.

Again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

So, as soon as everyone could be bothered, we gathered around the small coffee table in our two room hovel and introduced Larxene. Throughout the whole thing, she just stood there smirking like crazy. I think even Yuffie was freaked out after a while.

You'd be scared too if you knew how hard it was to freak that girl out.

"Dude," muttered Reno to Zack, "why does she keep staring like that?" Zack only had time to elbow him once (you normally have to do it _at least_ three times to get his attention), before Larxene bashed his nose with the back of her fist in a lightning fast strike. I would've been falling about laughing if I hadn't already fallen over in shock (tell anyone and I promise you, YOU WILL DIE).

"Shit!" Reno screamed, "That was my FACE, yo!"

The blond girl turned around, a sweet and totally disturbing smile on her pixie-like face. "Yeah!" she replied happily, "I know!"

Leon coughed, eyes wide in shock and wary fear, "Um… Larxene, are you alright with sleeping on the floor for now?"

Meanwhile, on one hand, I was mentally throwing myself off a cliff while on the other hand I was planning to make Larxene my favourite person ever. Haha! Leon _speechless_! I don't think he's lost his composure since he learned to talk. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be _alive_ when this girl got angry.

"We should start looking for a bigger place," Vincent murmured behind the swath of cloth covering his mouth, calm and collected as always. He tucked a piece of his gleaming black hair behind his ear, giving us a clear view of his ruby red eyes.

"I totally agree, yo. I mean, someone as beautiful as me needs some breathing space."

Zack chuckled at my brother while punching him on the shoulder. "Your nose is, like, broken, man. You ain't so beautiful right now!"

Reno gingerly felt his swelling nose, commenting darkly that he was better looking than me and Zack put together.

I hope that punch was hard.

Zexion stood slowly, book in hand. His slate hair shone in the meager light of our bare light bulb. "I believe that before we talk about living arrangements, we should hear how the recon mission went." He looked at me expectedly.

"What? It's not like I took notes," I drawled. "The plant had a few cyber-blueprints on a new type of Guard Heartless, but that was it. I've got some pictures of it, because I'm awesome. Got it memorized?"

I nodded to Reno who took out a small black box, an old cell phone that had a primitive camera installed. We can't be too sure on who may be tracking us through technology.

He showed it to the others while I lounged, having already taken a look at the detailed sketches. When they'd finished analyzing the new information on the Heartless, a humanistic robot that the government used to control the masses, I spoke up.

"Hey, shouldn't we give Larxene her personant? I know we have a spare one handy." I smiled, poking Demyx with my foot. Sighing, he stood up and retrieved the odd looking personant from a dusty wooden shelf we'd found at a dumping ground one day. Instead of the normal opaque, white design that most personants sported, the one in Demyx's hand was translucent and malleable. He tossed it to me and I held it out to the girl.

She took it quickly, her look questioning. She was wary of putting it on. I sighed, rubbing my hand along the rough denim of my last century styled clothing. We renegades wore old, _normal_ clothing that actually dared to show our ankles. I know.

I whined at Yuffie. I'd explained our special brand of personants to enough people. She could do it for once.

Luckily, she agreed. She felt at her own face and pulled off her personant, surprising Larxene. Normal personants aren't invisible.

She explained about how they worked. How they gave us extra strength and agility and allowed us the use of a customized weapon, different for each of us. She asked me and Demyx to demonstrate. I summoned my chakrams, a pair of red spiky wheels that emitted fire. I set the edge of the table alight before stamping out the flame with my foot. Xigbar commented on my apparent lack of control. He shut up after that, too preoccupied with patting out the fire that had started on his head. Maybe I do have some issues. Demyx didn't need to summon anything, simply showing off his sitar's power over water, making sparkly bubbles appear, which he then proceeded to pop with a sort of childish fascination.

Actually, thinking back to it, Yuffie explained the whole thing pretty well, only talking about puppies once. I thought it was quite impressive as she only knew half the story. Only Reno, Vincent and I knew the full story. The full horror behind personants.

And we weren't telling _anybody_.

After the explanation, Larxene was more than eager to don her new mask and see what weapon she would receive. I was hoping it wouldn't be anything too destructive, you know. Maybe something that made rainbows, or healed people.

I should have known I was being delusional.

They turned out to be kunai with the ability to control and summon lighting. Oh the joys.

It took two weeks, actually, for anyone to come looking for the girl.

It was just bad luck that it was me that they spotted, that day in the deserted alleyway.

Or maybe I should say that it was good luck…


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**

**Tasha: **Yeah, turns out Issy's not big on the whole Author's Note thing. So I'll do it! :3 I know, I rock. Um, yeah, the idea of the personant comes from a manga called Personant by Komi Naoshi. You can find it on One Manga. Google it. Also, I will only do this once, so listen up:

**DISCLAIMER: **We do not, nor will we ever (T-T) own Kingdom Hearts. Don't sue us. We will cry.

Now, on with the story.

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**Riku POV**

So.

You want to know when the trouble started for us, huh? I guess it must be the day Sora nearly got fired.

Oh, who am I kidding? I remember the exact moment the trouble started, but this came a little bit before. I think I just want you to understand our way of life.

I worked at the Radiant Garden Café. It was a warm little place, full of families, and people sheltering from the cold. It sat in a small corner of the main square in the Luxury Area of the city where I lived. I was working on the floor that day, I remember because I had to run the farthest after Sora's accident. I'd been lounging for a moment, sharing a joke with Tidus by the window as he cleaned up the little litter that made its way to the area on which our humble building sat. Tidus' golden hair hand been bouncing in the sunlight, casting tiny flecked reflections on the walls of the building.

We could hear the boy humming in the storeroom, the regulars were chuckling slightly behind their masks, pretty much used to his tuneless-ness, but some snobbish old woman sort of huffed and left. Marluxia was laughing at her before Cloud turned and Looked at him. Cloud's Look is deadly, and Marluxia practically dived under the counter when he saw our boss's face. He always was a sissy.

If you were intelligent, you'd be wondering how Cloud can Look at people, yet you can't really see his expression. Well, I don't know if you've ever seen a Look (if not, you are the luckiest person alive. Go away and count your blessings, you know some very nice people, and have obviously never met Cloud), but you don't need to see their face. You just _know._

It's exceedingly creepy, which is why I never get on Cloud's bad side. Or, if you listen to Roxas, and by default, Hayner, why I suck up to him. But I don't, I just don't deliberately annoy him (like most) nor do I have something in my genes which causes Cloud to be irrationally irritated (like Sora).

Anyway, Sora was humming, Marluxia was hiding and all was good in the cafe. Until Sora pulled the dishes down on himself.

That boy.

Give him a round of applause, people.

I'm his best friend and even _I _think he's an idiot. Poor Roxas, having to deal with that for his whole life, though he must be used to it by now.

I'm pretty glad it's common knowledge that I'm Sora's best friend, otherwise the fact that I ran faster than his twin brother _and _vaulted over the counter to get to him could have given people the wrong idea. Like, we were going out, or something equally ridiculous.

Yeah, as if.

But Sora was pretty much okay, though his personant was a little cracked. He was a little dizzy though, so I helped him sit down.

It wasn't until he was actually in the chair till I noticed he was bleeding through the crack in his personant.

Yeah, I admit it, I panicked. What was I supposed to do? Take off his personant? That was punishable by law. I wouldn't worry about it now; I'd rip the thing off of everyone I knew, just to get back at those bastards. Back then, I actually had a little respect for the system. You know, before Axel shattered it.

I miss that guy sometimes.

Sorry, I'm wandering. I'll try not to do it again, okay?

So, Sora was hurt, I was having a moral dilemma, and Roxas had just come in. Wait, did I say that already? Ah well, now you know.

Roxas took one look at his twin and hissed at me, "What did you do?!"

"What!?" I squawked quietly. I don't know why but Roxas doesn't trust me at _all_. It's never been a problem, really, but this was not the time for an argument, I mean, his brother was hurt, and he immediately thought I had committed whatever heinous crime he had imagined? I was the guy's _friend_. And I jumped over obstacles for him. What more could Roxas want from me?

I don't know, maybe he was jealous or something. I don't really give a damn. But there is one thing we agree on. Heck, _everyone_ in the cafe agrees on this, except the person in question. There is only one person in the whole of the city who you should call in a crisis.

"AERITH!" we yelled. Roxas glared at me, disgusted at having the same thought at the same time.

I humphed.

Aerith, the caring soul who I now fully appreciate, having only Yuffie to be the caring lady in my life, and that's not saying much, considering the last time I cut my finger, she told me to stem the bleeding by sticking it up my nose. Charming. Larxene doesn't count. She is _not _a lady. She's some sort of human/sadistic-hyena hybrid who makes me want to run for the hills… Anyways, Aerith, the caring soul who I now fully appreciate came running into the storeroom, sort of flustered, and followed by the Girls.

The Girls scare me.

Cloud makes me nervous, Roxas makes me paranoid and Tifa makes me anxious she's going to break something, but the Girls scare the shit out of me. They, admittedly, straightened my hair for me once...and maybe layered it.

And I am eternally grateful, because Sora told me it looked good. But they're like fucking piranhas. You give them a little bit of blood and they _never leave you alone_.

Sora should take it as a sign of our friendship I didn't run away as soon as Selphie, Naminé and Kairi walked into the room. Aerith immediately rushed to Sora's side and began to agonise. Her hands fluttered delicately over his face, her forehead wrinkled slightly.

Good to know I wasn't the only one having a moral crisis.

But as great as companionship was, I think I'd have preferred it if Aerith had had an actual solution to our problem. The Girls (yes, I know I keep capitalising, but if you knew 'em, so would you) started fussing. You know the deal, 'Oh, is he okay?' or 'What happened?' or 'Oh, look, he's _bleeding_!' and even, "Ohmigosh! My nails would look awesome in that colour red!"

Yes, let us applaud Selphie's powers of observation.

Marluxia wandered in, flicking his pink flowing hair over his shoulder in a feminine manner. He stopped in shock when he saw Sora.

"What the hell?"

"Eh?" said Kairi eloquently, one hand resting on the hip of her white waitress outfit "Marly, didn't you hear Sora shriek like a girl?"

A slurred voice sounded from the chair in the corner, "I didn't shriek, Kai. It was a manly yell." I don't think that Sora had fully grasped the situation he was in. I'm sure he didn't know he was surrounded by a pack of female wolves.

"Sora! You're awake!" screamed the red head, flinging her arms around his neck, cutting off his air supply, and causing him to faint again.

"And now he's not," I said snidely. I felt a bit guilty for that actually, but then Naminé kicked me in the back of the knee, smiling benignly as she did so. I was really hurt, and my leg stopped working properly. I collapsed to the floor and hit my head unceremoniously on the tiles.

"Oww," I moaned, "Nami, what the hell?"

Roxas was grinning smugly with a hand on Naminé's shoulder like a proud father who has seen his daughter use the wisdom he was bestowed upon her.

Just for that, I slammed my fist down maliciously on to his foot.

He howled in pain, and I was triumphant for the thirty seconds it took him to get over the pain, reach down and grab my hair.

My eyes narrowed. I remember thinking, _oh, don't you _dare, _pretty boy!_

He dared.

He yanked me all the way to my feet actually, which was a BIG mistake on his part. I growled and kneed him in the gut. He double over, and I discovered my hair was still in his fist.

Then Cloud walked in.

What a picture we must have made, Roxas doubled over, with my knee still in his stomach, and my head bent back in agony because Roxas was still tugging at my beautiful locks of hair (silvery-white is such an original colour, way better than blonde. Tidus, if you're reading this: I am NOT prematurely stressed dammit! Do I sound stressed to you?!). Cloud was a bit pissed, according to his body language. The crossed arms and impatiently taping foot said it all. I was feverishly thankful I couldn't see his face. It would've made the Look so much worse. Like, it could've caused death by spontaneous combustion. Seriously. That's how powerful the look is.

"_Any_way," said Marluxia in an irritated tone, "Don't call me Marly, _KaiKai_. And I didn't hear dear little Sorarah. I just came in to get some _cheese_."

"Marluxia," said Cloud in a monotone that sounded distinctly more flat than the monotone everyone else used during speech. "Shut up."

Our boss, the King of monotone, and our chef, the King of annoying the King of monotone.

Aerith flapped her hands at Cloud, her pretty eyes stretched wide. From what I understand, Cloud and Aerith go a long way back. Otherwise, you are not allowed to flap in Cloud's personal space, (_that_ is why Selphie got passed over for promotion last year.)

"Cloud!" she said in her patented help-me-I'm-helpless tone, "What am I supposed to do?"

If Cloud was a normal person, he'd be biting his lip now. But Cloud... I don't know how to explain it. Cloud would be one of the people campaigning against personants one hundred and fifty years ago, just because he doesn't need one. I'm guessing his face would be as expressionless as his ultra-expressionless voice.

Finally, our boss spoke. "Aerith, take it off."

"What?" gasped the whole room in unison, me included. Cloud had asked Aerith to break the law our society was founded on! Was he _mad_? Well, more than I had thought before? They might be friends. But surely not...

"Okay," Aerith said, head already bowed over the clasp at the back of my best friend's head.

Okay, so I was wrong.

I don't think anyone could understand what it was like, seeing his face. I guess you can kind of compare it to seeing somebody naked, in a way.

Yeah, personants are that important.

People outside Sora's family will have never seen his face. You walk down the street and all you can see are hair colours, no faces. Everyone is wearing the same type of clothing, and nobody can choose their future.

Yeah, it all made sense at the time. They said it took all the difficult decisions out of life, and this way, no conflicts could arise, no discriminations.

All that really happened is no-one has individuality anymore.

I see that now, but when we removed Sora's personant, it felt kinda...dirty.

As the clasp came off, time seemed to slow down. I loved Sora… like a brother, mind you. But, would his face look anything like I had imagined all those times? Would his lips be full and pink or disappointingly thin and cracked?

I already knew Sora's hair colour, a light chestnut brown that glinted cheekily off any light available, but I had never known how well it offset his face. He was kind of pale underneath a bit of a tan, probably from loss of blood or something. But he was really...beautiful. And the breath I hadn't known I had been holding whistled out between my lips quickly.

I mean, he was my best friend, but suddenly I wished he wasn't. I wished he was some sort of stranger in the street, who I'd come in to help out. But he wasn't. I wasn't.

It's for the best.

But his eyes were closed. I couldn't believe it. Old literature, in paper books, said the eyes were the window to the soul. But I didn't need to look into his soul. Just his eyes

I want to know what colour they are.

I think Naminé noticed how uncomfortable Roxas was at first. I was really bewildered at first. I mean, he was Sora's twin, right? He must have seen his brother's face before. Then it hit me with a jolt. Sora told it to me himself, not even two weeks ago.

Roxas and Sora were _identical_ twins.

It must have hit the others around the same time, "Ha!" crowed Marluxia, "You got nothing to hide, Blondie."

I know Marluxia disliked Roxas. I know he had a sort of twisted sense of humour.

But I never knew he had a death wish.

The Girls and Roxas leapt forward, but to my surprise, I got there first. My body moved on its own as I slapped him round the back the head. "Shut up, Marly!" I said venomously. And then, half out of shock, and half because they were all staring at me, I ran out of the storeroom.

The rest of the day passed in a blur, with me walking around in a daze. I mean, why was I disappointed that I hadn't seen Sora's eyes? I'd already invaded his privacy enough. I completely zoned out once or twice, which led to Tifa yelling at me and trying to hit me.

That girl has anger management problems.

It was soon closing time, as the waning sun sunk low onto the horizon, and I was hurrying to the exit, desperately wanting to just _leave_. Sora had already gone home, sent away by a very angry Cloud. Sora could have gotten us all in trouble. And Cloud wasn't about to let him forget that.

I needed to think. I couldn't wait to get home take off my personant and have a very long, very hot bath. I have hot baths when I'm confused. Get over it.

I bet Roxas chose then to work up his courage and talk to me just then just to spite me.

"Umm, listen, Riku," he said, shuffling his feet, tugging at his hair and generally looking nervous and embarrassed. "Thanks for, you know..."

"Slapping Marluxia?" I said dryly.

He nodded sheepishly.

I shrugged one shoulder casually, trying to downplay my actions. "No problem, Roxas."

I was turning to leave when he yelled after me, "Hey, Riku!"

I turned back, glad he couldn't see my expression.

"You're...okay, man."

It would have totally ruined the moment.

I nodded once, curtly, the personant equivalent of a small smile. Then I walked back to my apartment, the sun glinting artistically off my hair (as per usual), feeling warm and totally happy.

That day is still one of my best memories. Sometimes, late at night, I relive it in my mind, replaying it moment by moment, over and over. The happiness comes back for a moment, and it's like nothing ever happened. I stop feeling so cold and I smile quietly in the dark, hoping the smothering blanket of black can hide what my personant used to. I'm so glad that Sora hit his head, vindictive as it may sound.

Because the next day, it all went to hell.

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Yeah, brownies for reviewers. :D


End file.
